Time motion analysis of nursing work in ICU, telemetry and medical-surgical units

Abstract

Nursing work varies by unit, yet managers have not been armed with empirical data with which to make more informed decisions about nurses' work priorities, clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction, staff satisfaction and cost. The results from this study will help them to do so.

Refinement, reliability and validity of the Time Capture Tool (TimeCaT) using the Omaha System to support data capture for time motion studies

“…The TimeCaT, developed by Lopetegui et al in 2012 at the Department of Biomedical Informatics in Ohio State University, is an open source T&M study tool to observe and record predefined activities with Tablets and Pads. It is a customizable, user‐centered web application developed to support data collection for T&M studies (Lopetegui et al, ; Schenk et al, ; Yen et al, ).…”

“…Location includes places where activities occur. It is hard to simultaneously record the performance of two or more tasks without these separate dimensions in T&M tools because health professionals often deal with different types of activities such as talking with a client, documentation, monitoring, intravenous intervention, and sometimes need to do their activities in different locations such as medical intervention room, hallway, patient room, nursing room (Lopetegui et al, ; Schenk et al, ; Yen et al, ). The TimeCaT allows observers to select and record activities from a list of activities in these three dimensions without prioritization during observation (Lopetegui et al, ; Yen et al, ), thus enabling measurement of both single tasks and multitasking for investigators.…”

“…The TimeCaT interface included 84 nursing/midwifery activities that were mapped to the Omaha System: an interface terminology designed to describe health care activities by interventions consisting in combined terms (problem + category + target + care description). To visualize terminology in TimeCaT interfaces, the Omaha System categories were identified with special symbols as Teaching, Guidance, and Counseling (TGC; shorthand icon = %); Treatments and Procedures (TP; shorthand icon = *); Case Management (CM; shorthand icon = ::); and Surveillance (S; shorthand icon = >) (Schenk et al, ). For example, “% pregnancy hygiene” was an interface that explained a task of nursing/midwifery, defined as a “nurse gives education, guidance and counseling to a pregnant woman about personal hygiene”.…”

“…(Lopetegui et al, ; Schenk et al, ; Zhang et al, ). In several T&M studies, it was noted that linking an existing interface terminology to the data collection tool was feasible to describe nursing activities in a standardized manner (Fratzke, Melton‐Meaux, & Monsen, ; Schenk et al, ; Zhang et al, ). Also, the use of the standardized data collection tool in T&M studies makes it easier and practical in comparing the data across studies (Fratzke et al, ; Lopetegui, Yen, Lai, Embi, & Payne, ; Schenk et al, ; Zhang et al, ).…”

“…In several T&M studies, it was noted that linking an existing interface terminology to the data collection tool was feasible to describe nursing activities in a standardized manner (Fratzke, Melton‐Meaux, & Monsen, ; Schenk et al, ; Zhang et al, ). Also, the use of the standardized data collection tool in T&M studies makes it easier and practical in comparing the data across studies (Fratzke et al, ; Lopetegui, Yen, Lai, Embi, & Payne, ; Schenk et al, ; Zhang et al, ). Furthermore, measurement of workflow with a standardized nursing terminology embedded in an electronic tool could gain adequate insight into nurses' workflows as they provide care in today's complex healthcare environment (Fratzke et al, ; Schenk et al, ).…”